Romance, Action, and Everything In Between
by Void Of Blue
Summary: A work-in-progress about the life and turmoil of the students of Hogwarts, particularly about Harry Potter and his crush, Cho. (Sorry for the brief hiatus I've been on, it's harder for me to post during the week. I'll try to post the next chapter today.)
1. A Rough Night

Harry pounded down the corridor, repeatedly looking over his shoulder. Every few seconds, a jet of red, green, or blue light would sail over his shoulder.

_My luck is running out, _Harry thought, as he ducked into the stairwell and began to race up the steps. He took a few seconds to pull out his luck potion and take a swig before he continued his running.

He heard a bang behind him and saw orange light reflected in front of him. The Slytherin bullies weren't giving up.

He passed the fifth floor, narrowly dodging a bolt of purple light. He pivoted at the floor and hurriedly started to climb the next flight of stairs. As he turned, he thought he saw a flash of blond hair. _Oh no, not Malfoy again! _Harry thought as he sprinted up.

He stepped onto the sixth floor, panting, trying to catch his breath. As soon as he stopped, he heard a faint shout of "Tarantallegra!" and a jinx slammed into his chest, causing his feet to start moving uncontrollably. Harry cursed under his breath, then proceeded to quickly murmur a charm under his breath to stop his legs from dancing and a shout of "Locomotor wibbly!" over his shoulder before he continued his climb. When he heard their shouts of dismay, he smiled, as thoughts of their wobbly legs filled his mind.

"Whew!" he said out loud. Too loud in fact. Filch's cat. Mrs. Norris, hissed loudly, and with a strangled meow, ran to the bobbing light a hundred yards down the corridor.

Quickly, he ran to the portrait of the Fat Lady, begging her not to give him any trouble before shouting "Caput Draconis!" and "Pig Snout!" in quick succession, hoping one of them was right. "Pick the right one," the Fat Lady requested. Annoyed, he just shouted "OPEN UP!"

With "Okay, okay," the portrait silently opened.

As Harry slipped around the corner of the portrait, he smiled as he caught a glimpse of Draco and his cronies being caught by Filch, but he felt a slight pang of fear as Mrs. Norris stared right at him before he disappeared into the Gryffindor common room.

.

"Harry, what happened?" Hermione said concernedly as she and Ron rushed up to greet him and noticed the bruising on his face and the burn mark from the jinx on his shirt.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," replied, as he proceeded to faint and fall on the wool rug of the common area.

He woke up to snoring and a damp cloth on his forehead. As he opened his eyes he saw Hermione's silhouette in the light of the lamp behind her. "You're not supposed to be here!" Harry directed at her in a barely suppressed whisper.

"Don't worry," she whispered back, "I'm going soon."

Right after she finished her last word, Neville jumped out of his bed, whisper-shouting "Who's there?" and then a quick "Lumos!"

He instantly toppled over, stiff as a board. A shadow went up to him and a trace of red light emerged from Neville's chest as he fell limp.

"Thanks, Ron!" Hermione whispered over her shoulder, before quietly racing back to the girl's dormitories.

As Harry blew out the light, he saw a look of passion and longing on Ron's face, following Herminone as she ran out the door.

He decided against saying anything.


	2. The Duel

Harry looked at the brown concoction in front of him with disgust. Was he really supposed to drink that?

He shot Professor Snape a questioning look. Snape's cold eyes brought him back to last night, running away from Draco and Filch, and the look on Ron's face while he watched Hermione leave the room.

"- and Potter over there can answer that for you, right Potter?" Snape's cold voice and leering glare brought him back to reality. And had made a fool of him in front of the entire class, especially his partner, Cho Chang, who he had a crush on.

"What?" The whole class burst into laughter. Cho turned away from him, a look of disgust on her face.

_Oh great, _Harry thought as Snape opened him mouth to ask his question again.

"I said, what is the cure to the Polyjuice Potion?" Snape asked, annoyed.

"Uh, I don't know," Harry replied.

Again, he was the laughingstock of the class. Harry Potter's face turned beet red as his classmates cracked up, guffawing at him.

"Well, there isn't one, and you should know that, as the whole class does," was Snape's only reply.

The enchanted silver bell hanging above his desk started to ring.

"Class adjourned, and you better not disappoint me on the test tomorrow."

As Harry gathered his stuff, Cho left without a word, not even looking at him. He could tell she still had the look of disgust on her face.

.

"We have a test tomorrow?!" Ron exclaimed, a grimace forming on his face.

"Yup, in Potions," Harry replied.

"What are you guys talking about?" Hermione questioned as she plopped her stuff down on the table in the Gryffindor common room.

"About how excited we are about the new test tomorrow," Harry replied, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Oh, we knew about that for ages!" was Hermione's reply.

"And who exactly is we?" Ron asked. The same look Harry saw last night flickered on his face for an instant, but Hermione was looking down, writing on something, too busy to notice.

"Well, in this case, just me."

"Anyways, I need some fresh air," Harry said, hoping Ron and Hermione would get some time together. "Bye!"

.

Cho walked down the hallway to the Ravenclaw common room, thinking about what happened in Potions. She sat down on the couch, next to her friend, Luna Lovegood. She had already told Luna her dilemma.

"I can't keep this up any longer, Luna, I just can't ignore him and pretend he's scum. I really don't want to make Cedric angry, but I want to have Harry too," Cho said.

Luna replied, "Well, either choose or do both, though it's hard to do either or those."

Cho sighed. "I'll never be able to make up my mind. Maybe I can have a relationship with Harry in secret. I'll just have to hope Cedric never finds out."

Right then, Marietta Edgecombe came through the door in a hurry. "There's a duel outside!" she announced, right before she ran out again.

"C'mon," Cho said to Luna, "Let's go!"

.

As she ran down the steps, her heart sank. Harry was pitted against Cedric. Of course it had to be that way. She tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, but even though she tried hard to remain unseen, rumors flitted through the crowd that Cedric's girlfriend was there.

She learned from the others in the crowd that Cedric had insulted Harry because Harry had beat Cho at Quidditch. After hearing that a dozen times to be sure the story was right, she sat down mournfully. "They had to be fighting, of course they did. And now Harry's going to hate me."

"Don't say that, Harry likes you," Luna replied.

"WHAT!? No way!"

"He does, just watch."

Light started to light the field, and Cho went over with Luna to watch.

_Why, oh why did I have to get myself involved in this,_ Harry thought, as he stared down his opponent.

Suddenly, a burst of green light appeared from Cedric's wand. "Protego!" Harry shouted in response.

A shield make of blue light formed in front of him. The green bolt dissipated when it hit the barrier, but so did the shield. _Damn he's powerful, _Harry thought.

Harry shot a stupefying spell at him, hoping for a quick end, but Cedric effortlessly dodged it and sent a matching jet of red light at Harry's chest. It found its target and Harry was thrown back several feet with his head muzzy.

He got up quickly and shot a jinx at Cedric's legs. The burst of green light found its target and Cedric's legs started to dance around. The crowd burst into laughter at this, and Harry felt a new burst of strength. Harry dashed to the side to avoid another stunning spell, and shot a Body Binding Curse at him. Cedric froze, but almost instantly escaped the spell. Harry then shot some more stunning spells at Cedric before he could do anything and finished up with a shout of "Flipendo!"

Cedric was knocked backwards several feet and flew through the air before landing on the ground. As Harry looked away, a burst of blue light flew into his back, hitting him and making him stumble and fall to the ground.

Neither dueler was well enough to get off the ground and keep on fighting.


	3. Love's Beginnings

"Why'd you have to do that?" Cho exclaimed, miffed, as she lightly punched Cedric on the shoulder.

"Oh, stop being such a spoilsport," he replied, his smile so contagious she couldn't help but grin too.

"Just messing with you," she shot back, over her shoulder. "I've got to go. Bye!" She turned on heel and walked away, black shoes clapping on the granite floor.

Back in her room, she organized her stuff, trying to find her homework. _I really am messy, _she thought, pulling out her crumpled potions homework.

Suddenly, she noticed something scrawled in the corner of her paper: "I really messed up in class didn't I. Anyways, would you like to meet up in Hogsmeade?" She recognized Harry's handwriting in a second, and her heart leaped with joy, love, and anxiety. How was she going to see him without Cedric noticing? _I can figure that part out later,_ she thought, as she smoothed out her homework and began.

.

Harry put his head I his hands, thinking about how pissed Cho would be at him. _What have I done? _he thought.

Hermione came racing into the common room, asking if he was going to sleep extra tonight and conserving energy for his recovery.

Ron followed, lipstick on his lips. Harry excused himself and invited Ron up to his bunk in the boy's dormitories.

"Were you planning to tell me what that lipstick is doing on your face?" Harry asked, a grin on his face.

"Blimey, Harry, it was amazing, even though we were technically drunk on Butterbeer. We were just talking and I leaned forward and kissed her, and she kissed me back, probably because she was drunk. But, she's been ignoring me all day."

"Oh, that explains it," Harry replied, "she's been acting peculiar every time I say your name. That sucks," Harry continued, a grimace on his face, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not really," Ron responded, "it's already a bloody situation, I don't want to get you into it."

"Well, let's just hope she didn't put anything in here that could be listening or spying on us. Just to make sure, _Muffliato_." Immediately, it felt like a thin veil had descended over them, and sounds around them got slightly less acute and slightly fuzzier.

"Anything else you need to talk about?" Harry asked.

"Well, how to get throughout this whole bloody ordeal," came the reply.

"Just give it some time, she'll get friendlier."

"If you say so," Ron sighed and got up, walking over to his own bunk.

.

Ron slowly walked towards Hermione, meaning to apologize, when a barrier of blue light flashed in front of him. He flew back a few feet, but was mostly unhurt.

"What the bloody hell was that for?" Ron exclaimed at the lone figure on the couch.

"For everything that's happened in the last day, and for bothering me while doing homework." With that, Hermione, flicked her wand, all her stuff packing up neatly, then stalked out of the room, leaving Ron with a dismayed face, and the same look of longing as before.

"Well, that didn't work out well," Harry said, before leaving to go to Potions class.

.

Harry stepped into the hallway – and ran into Cho, knocking all her stuff to the ground. "Oh bloody Merlin, sorry!" he exclaimed, a look of plain dismay on his face, trying to pick her stuff up as fast as he could.

"Come over here for a second," Cho replied after taking her stuff back, and walked over to the stairwell.

"I was waiting for you; I wanted to talk about the little note on my homework." Harry immediately blushed and looked away in embarrassment.

"Just wanted to say," Cho continued, "that it's perfectly fine." Cho then proceeded to lightly kiss Harry on the cheek, and walk down the hall towards Snape's classroom.

Harry reached his hand up to his cheek, feeling the spot where she kissed him, then stood up slowly and walked in a trance down to Potions class.

.

Hermione walked down the hallway, trying to figure out why exactly she was mad at Ron. She went over a list of reasons in her head: _He kissed me, he got me drunk and did it, and was bothering me earlier. _Which didn't seem to make much sense to her now, now that she went over it logically. She had also been drunk at the time, and she had kissed him back. Also, he had just been walking across the common room, possibly to apologize.

She really had messed things up.

When she got to Gryffindor Tower, she wrote a quick note in the common room, then went up to Ron's dorm door, opened it, and with a quick "Repulso!" it flew into his room.

.

"Harry, Harry, come look at this!" Ron ran down the steps into the common room, where Harry was reclining on the couch.

"What is it, Ron?" Harry sat straight up on the couch, awaiting Ron's reply.

"Look at this note Hermione left on my bed!"

"Let me read it!" Harry demanded.

_R-_

_ I'm really sorry for the way I've been acting towards you. After all, I was just as drunk._

_ -H_

"Whoa, she actually apologized to you," Harry said, "I was wondering if you two love birds were over each other already."

"Hey!" Ron exclaimed, "We're not _lovebirds_, we just like each other. And don't let Hermione hear that, you'll be dead by morning!" Ron lightly punched Harry's arm and climbed back up the stairs to his room.

.

"That must've been some crazy stuff you did to make Hermione forgive you," Harry whispered jokingly.

"Hey, I didn't do anything! She just apologized then and there," came the reply out of the darkness.

"Sure you didn't."

"No, seriously! I just found this note on my bed."

"Fine, fine. Good night Ron."

"Night, Harry."

If Harry had waited one moment longer before turning over in bed, the moonlight would've revealed Ron's face, a look of longing on it.

.


End file.
